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‘Intelligent, witty and stylish’ INDEPEDENT
‘Everyone’s appetites will be satisfied’ ELLE MAGAZINE
‘Waters is an author to cherish’ GUARDIAN
Celebrating five decades of the feminist publisher, each of the Five Gold Reads represents an iconic moment in Virago’s history, from the 1970s to today.
Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl – I knew it at once! – that I had ever seen . . .
Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty’s dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.
‘It’s a rare pleasure to discover a writer as assured as Waters’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘A first-class storyteller’ EVENING STANDARD
‘Sarah Waters, quite simply, is one of our greatest writers’ SUNDAY EXPRESS
‘Waters’ persistent picking apart of class is fascinating’ OBSERVER
‘Everyone’s appetites will be satisfied’ ELLE MAGAZINE
‘Waters is an author to cherish’ GUARDIAN
Celebrating five decades of the feminist publisher, each of the Five Gold Reads represents an iconic moment in Virago’s history, from the 1970s to today.
Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl – I knew it at once! – that I had ever seen . . .
Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty’s dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.
‘It’s a rare pleasure to discover a writer as assured as Waters’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘A first-class storyteller’ EVENING STANDARD
‘Sarah Waters, quite simply, is one of our greatest writers’ SUNDAY EXPRESS
‘Waters’ persistent picking apart of class is fascinating’ OBSERVER
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Reviews
This lush tale fearlessly and feverishly exposes the political, social and sexual subversions of Victorian-era gender-benders: sapphists, libertines and passing women... Waters is a masterful storyteller... Nancy's search for love and identity is a raucous, passionate adventure and a rare, thrilling read
An unstoppable read, a sexy and picaresque romp through the lesbian and queer demi-monde of the roaring Nineties. Imagine Jeanette Winterson on a good day collaborating with Judith Butler to pen a Sapphic Moll Flanders. It's gorgeous
Erotic and absorbing... Written with startling power
Compelling... readers of all sexes and orientations should identify with this gutsy hero as she learns who she is and how to love
Waters is an extremely confident writer, combining precise, sensuous descriptions with irony and wit. This is a lively, gutsy, highly readable debut
Delectable... written in roguishly lilting prose filled with the sights, sounds and stenches of London street life
Richly entertaining... Waters's debut offers terrific entertainment: swiftly paced, crammed with colorful depictions of 1890s London and vividly sketched Dickensian supporting characters, pulsating with highly charged (and explicitly presented) erotic heat
This could be the most important debut of its kind since that of Jeanette Winterson
Intelligent, witty and stylish, the novel re-imagines a lost lesbian history through vivid sensual detail, evocative period slang (the title is a sexual euphemism) and a satisfyingly complex plot
An extremely confident writer, combining precise, sensuous descriptions with irony and wit in a skilled, multi-layered pastiche of the lesbian historical romance
Wonderful... a sensual experience that leaves the reader marveling at the author's craftsmanship, idiosyncrasy, and sheer effort
Glorious... an exceptional debut